Critical Analysis: Garbage In, Not Garbage Out Waste Management, Inc.

(WM) provides waste management services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in North America. It offers collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is also a developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. According to the article Garbage In, Not Garbage Out (The Wall Street Journal, 2012), David Steiner, who is the CEO of WM, asserts that WM will make waste more profitable as well as environmentally sustainable. The article presents WMs plans for reusing waste and encouraging more consumers to recycle. WM is assuming that some trends will grow and make for a strong business proposition in energy saving and waste management. This report presents a PEST analysis. Employing a PEST analysis will critically analyze and understand the macro forces at work behind the business situation presented in this article.

PEST Analysis of the Global Trends in 2012

Political Global warming

Economic Weak recovering from the financial crisis (Global) Strong recovering from the financial crisis (US)

Social Green movement Social media

Technological Portable technology Recycling technology

Political We assume that global warming was the political issue during 2012 which is the time background of the article. In December 2012, a UN climate conference in Doha (UN, 2012), agreed to a new commitment period for the Kyoto protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse gas output of some developed countries, and affirmed a previous decision to adopt a new global climate pact by 2015. The conference also addressed three key challenges related to global warming: low-carbon development and adaptation and building an effective global carbon market. The global warming has been a good opportunity for WM. As David Steiner mentioned in the article, WM captures methane gas from a landfill and makes electricity or convert it into diesel or liquefied natural gas. Since methane gas from a landfill leads to important environmental, hygiene and security problems in the landfill and society, effectively using methane gas could increase WMs reputation and creates positive image of company.

Economic

We assume that the global economic recovering was weakening from the financial crisis during 2012. According to the article Global economic recovery weakening, says IMF (BBC, 2012), the global economic recovery was wakening as government policies had failed to restore confidence. The IMF downgraded its estimate for global growth 3.6% to 3.9% in July. Although the global economy recovering was wakening, the U.S. which is WMs business scope was showing strong economic recovering indicators such as GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, housing market, and stock market index, according to report Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy (K.ElwellCraig). Therefore we can assume that the U.S. economy recovering could lead increasing demands for WMs business, since people more consume goods and create more waste.

Social We assume that the green movement was increasing by social media during 2012. According to the article Earth Hour aims for lights off across the globe (RenzenbrinkAnne, 2012), Earth Hour is a global WWF (formerly known as World Wildlife Fund) climate change initiative. This event calls for everyone to stand up and take responsibility towards a sustainable future. Millions of people turn off their lights for Earth Hour at 8.30pm (20:30) in their local times on the last Saturday of March. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas have stood in darkness during previous Earth Hours. A lot of companies also offer trade-ins or buyback programs to encourage their customers to recycle their electric devices according to the article How to Recycle 2012s Tech for Cash and Good Karma (CHRISTINABONNINGTON, 2012). These articles show that customers, companies, governments were interested in green movement during 2012. People could communicate with

friends and family via social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This social media trend also helped to spread green movement era. Together Green movement and social media created WM to educate and reward consumers for recycling.

Technological Portable technology increased accessibility of internet through portable devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops during 2012. This allowed Social Medias to quickly spread green movement era during 2012. According to David Steiner from the original article, WM has technology to sort waste and recyclable sources from single stream recycling which is put it all into one bin. This makes recycling rate rise from 5~10% to 30~40%. WMs partner company, has solar-powered compactors. This solar powered compactors make WM to empty the recycle once a month instead of three times a week. These recycling technology dramatically reduced its operation costs and generated more profit.

Conclusion The global trends of 2012 provide a supportive environment for Waste Management Inc. to continue its efforts for reusing waste and encourage recycling. The political trends show that the global warming was a political issue and effectively using methane gas could increase WMs reputation and creates positive image of company. The economic trends display that the U.S. economy recovering could lead increasing demands for WMs business. The social trends were the most important ones for Waste Management Inc. because they are the original source of the overall support for recycling. Finally, the company acted in parallel with the technological trends, which made Waste Management Inc.to the leading company in its industry.

References
BBC. (2012, October 09). BBC news business. Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business19876587

CHRISTINA, B. (2012, January 04). Wired Gadget lab. Retrieved from WIRED: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/01/recycle-gadgets-2013-edition/ K.Elwell, C. (n.d.). Economic Recovery. Congressional Research Service. Renzenbrink, A. (2012, March 31). CNN news Environment. Retrieved from CNN news: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/31/world/asia/earth-hour-preview/ The Wall Street Journal. (2012, March 26). Garbage In, Not Garbage Out. Retrieved from The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304636404577299693244220740 UN. (2012, December). UN Climate Change. Retrieved from UN org: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/climatechange/